Why does a magpie decorate its nest with shiny objects? The randomly gathered trinkets serve no practical purpose. Scientists suggest, and it seems likely, that these most intelligent of animals simply like the way they look.

When something is pleasing to the eye, we – like magpies – are drawn to it. Beauty can, and often does, cloud our critical assessment. This occurs in the world of benefits and benefits technology when we assume the outward appearance of an object (what we see) and what’s beneath the surface (what we get) are the same.

In this final blog of a three-part series (you can read Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed them), I’d like to look to the future – not only the future of private exchanges, but the future of benefits and health in the United States.

In Part 1 of this series, I took a few shots at some of the hype around private exchanges, but I still come down firmly on the “pro” side of the conversation.

Given the right circumstances, and by taking the right approach, a private exchange can deliver a tremendous amount of value while solving many of the challenges facing employers who wish to offer a sustainable and effective employee benefits program.

The hype about how private exchanges will revolutionize the successful delivery of employee benefits has quieted as the predicted “explosive growth” has slowed considerably. As I’ve long thought, instead of a revolution, a quiet evolutionary process is taking place.

As with many of the previous attempts to “reinvent an industry” – think WebVan and Pets.com – there is a growing recognition of the need to insert non-tech wisdom, sound processes and actual live human beings into the private exchange concept.